Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Kaiba Brothers ❯ Timeline ( Chapter 11 )

Everyone was sitting again. The only changes were that Bakura now sat with Ryou, and that Mokuba sat on Seto's lap with Seth and Noa on either side of the about-to-be-storyteller. Noa held one of Seto's hands silently. //Seto-chan, you okay?// He asked after a long moment of silence.

"When I was five," Seto started. "my mother died giving birth to Mokuba. My father had to take on another job to support himself and two children. Since he was never home,Mokuba and I stayed with our nearby aunt and uncle, who had a daughter and two sons of their own. My aunt and uncle were good people, but they had very little money, so we lived off the money my father sent and the minimal change from my uncle's job.

"When I was seven, my father died in an accident. My aunt and uncle weren't able to support us with the money they had, so we were forced to move in with a second cousin who was going to college in the area. She had an okay job, so we weren't too bad off, and I took care of Mokuba when she wasn't around, but we didn't have everything. When Mokuba and I outgrew our clothing, we would either go to the shelter near us or borrow from our aunt and uncle. It was difficult, but we made do.

"But, when I was ten, social services got wind of the situation and jumped in. They found the living conditions disgusting, and I guess they were, and sent Mokuba and I to the orphanage. They said we'd like it at the orphanage. They said it would be a better place for us." Seto's eyes were angry. "It was a nice place, but we missed it with our cousin, and they took her to jail.

"At the orphanage, we made a few friends. Many of the children there had come from abusive families and had some fairly graphic stories. Others were either shy or violent, and many liked picking on the littler kids, like Mokuba." Seto wrapped his free arm around his brother and gave Mokuba a light hug. "My best friend, until his death, was a quiet boy named Trigne. He'd been beaten and raped by his father nearly his whole life, and was the same age as me. He never talked to anyone, but, for some strange reason, opened up to me the day we met.

"When I was eleven, Gozaburo came to the orphanage. He wanted to adopt me, like many others before him, but didn't really want to bring Mokuba with. I got him to agree to a game of chess. If he won, I'd come with him alone. If I won, Mokuba came with. Well, I won. So Mokuba and I were adopted and left the orphanage.

"Everything was great, until the first day Mokuba went to a friend's house to spend the night for the other boy's birthday." Seto shivered and closed his eyes. "He punched me a few times, told me he had another reason for getting me than just my brains, threatened Mokuba, and pulled out some of my hair. I guess it could have been worse, and, at the time, I didn't think it could get any worse. I guess I just didn't think.

"About a month later, he had a new way to torture me. He used hot candle wax to burn me, and a favorite knife of his to cut me. I did manage to bite him, but, in return, he knocked me out." Seto hugged Mokuba closer, not opening his eyes. "The next morning, Gozaburo told me that his father had done the same things to him that he was doing to me. It was some sort of family tradition, I guess. Of course, it was a sick family tradition..." Seto sighed.

"I ended up telling Mokuba that I had gotten into a fight at school, to explain the wounds. I was never very good at bandaging things, so I had to tell him that the school nurse had done it for me. Really, Gozaburo had done the bandaging, being the considerate guy he was." Seto's voice held a tinge of irony in it. "Gozaburo told me to meet him in his room again that night and I got a really stupid idea. I'd decided I'd had enough, so..." Seto's voice caught in his throat and he shook his head.

"You tried to kill yourself." Yami said. Seto nodded slightly. The others who hadn't know gasped and turned to stare at the CEO.

"Seto-san..." Sekio whispered. The boy was shaking violently and had hidden his face in Mokuba's hair.

~I can't do this...~ Seto thought painfully.

~You can, and you will. You're stronger than you think, Seto. Stop pretending you aren't.~ Seth told him.

"Obviously," Seto started again, his voice muffled slightly by Mokuba's hair. "I failed. Of course, when I got to the hospital, they saw the wounds and accused Gozaburo of child abuse, which we both denied, and he was taken to jail. That was when Mokuba and I met Gozaburo's half brother, Goshin. Goshin took us to his house. He got me to tell him what had been happening at home, and, in return, promised to not turn Gozaburo in.

"The next day, Gozaburo was let out of jail, because the officers who'd taken him in hadn't read him his rights. Goshin had gotten him to promise to not beat me again. Although he looked tempted to a few times that day, he didn't. We got home, Goshin leaving us in the mansion alone, and..." Seto smiled into Mokuba's hair. " 'talked'.

"For about a year and a half after that day, night, whatever, Gozaburo's beatings were minimal, more like a game, I guess. He only hurt me when he was in a really bad mood, and always apologized afterwards. I guess his apologizing all the time could be kinda cute, especially that one time he bought me flowers and chocolates..." Seto chuckled at the memory. The room filled with smiles, but Seto still hid his face in Mokuba's hair. "And Goshin taught me martial arts everyday, after Gozaburo and I got home from the office. Mokuba was staying with Goshin." Seto poked his brother. "He later told me it was because he'd caught me sleeping with Gozaburo one night."

Mokuba giggled and smiles widened. "It was!" Mokuba said. "I thought it was weird, especially since you were always telling everyone how much you hated him."

"Trigne once said I loved him so much I hated him. I assume that that was the best defination." Seto mumbled.

Seth sighed. "It was, Seto. Get back to your tale."

Seto rose his head long enough the give the man a dirty look, then hid his face in Mokuba's hair once again. "I'm gettin'!" Seto complained. A couple people chuckled, including Seth. "One meeting, Trigne's adopted father came, and Trigne came with him. I was showing people to the meeting room, and managed to get Gozaburo to allow us to miss the meeting, so we could catch up. Kaiba Corp was having some construction at the time, so I took Trigne back to the area and we talked. I told him what had been happening, but Gozaburo caught us and took me home.

"He kinda beat me again, badly, then threatened Trigne's life. I got him to promise to let Trigne be before I blacked out again." Seto sighed. "When I woke back up, I went to Trigne's hotel, to talk with him. He fixed me up and stuff, let me call the others. I got Goshin to agree to a little outing in the park with just Trigne, Mokuba and me for the next day, but he said he didn't want me going over to Gozaburo's for some money to use. I kinda snapped at Goshin though. I realized that he was just trying to protect me from Gozaburo, he always was, and it drove me nuts.

"The outting would have been fine, but I was hurt, and then there was a kidnapping attempt, but Gozaburo had given me his cell phone and he came and picked us up. Trigne and I returned to Trigne's hotel room that night, since Gozaburo had said I could spend a few days with my friend. Greti-san, Trigne's adopted father, and still a good friend of Kaiba Corp., took us out to dinner." Seto chuckled. "Trigne talked him in to McDonald's. It was okay."

"If only because it was the first time you'd ever gone." Mokuba pointed out. Some of the people in the room laughed and Seto just sighed. "Gomen." Mokuba mumbled.

"S'ok." Seto looked up at the people in the room. "We got back, learned a few things went to bed." Seto shrugged. "Whatever. The next day, though, Goshin had told Gozaburo that we were all going out together, one big, happy family. Mokuba had requested the zoo, so we went to the zoo. While there, we met up with a school friend of Mokuba's and walked around with them. The girl, appearantly, thought I was cute, and kept on trying to get me to take her out. I managed to get ice cream on my forehead for my troubles, but the girl got ice cream on her dress in return." He had an innocent look on his face.

The room filled with laughter. "It was all the girl's ice cream, too!" Seth added in. The laughter intensified. Once the laughter had died down, everyone turned back to Seto. The CEO's eyes were hard and dark.

"I guess I forgot to mention that Goshin had told Gozaburo earlier that he was turning Gozaburo in later that day, for child abuse. When Gozaburo told me, I agreed to help him kill Goshin. So, later, I kept everyone else occupied and Gozaburo slit Goshin's throat. It wasn't pretty, I came back to check on them." Seto hands were fists. "I don't know whether or not I'm ashamed that I kicked Goshin when he couldn't defend himself, but I did. Then we all kinda left. They found Goshin's body later that night, and it was all over the news. Mokuba was horrified, but I can't say I cared.

"It wasn't until Trigne had to go back home that I finally returned to the mansion again. Trigne was killed when he got back home, supposedly protecting Greti-san from an assassin." Seto hung his head. "After Gozaburo's death, I learned that Gozaburo had hired an assassin to kill Trigne. I had the man killed."

Noa's eyes were wide. "I never knew that." He whispered.

"I didn't think you did." Seto sighed. "Gozaburo, the assassin, and I were the only ones that knew, until now, I guess... I never told Greti-san. I don't think he could have taken it." Noa shook his head sadly in response. "Anyway, when Mokuba was at school the next day, Gozaburo tried beating me again, for cheating on him, and I ran from the house and into the woods by the elementary school. He sent guards after me, but they didn't do anything.

"It took Gozaburo threatening Mokuba's life that finally brought me back. I got there in time to stop any real damage to Mokuba. Got him to bed." Seto sighed. "Gozaburo said he needed to talk to me once Mokuba was asleep. He threw me a few time, used his favorite knife, used my stomach as a soccerball." Seto grimaced, then shook his head.

"That's when he raped you, wasn't it?" Mokuba asked, turning to look at his brother. Seto nodded, his face paler than it had been before.

Seth sighed and gave the back of Seto's head a solid wack. "Snap out of it." He told the boy with an annoyed expression.

Seto nodded. "Gomen." Seth nodded. "The next morning, I kinda ran away again, returning to the woods. It..." He swallowed. "Turned out to be a bad idea. When Noa and Seth finally got me to go back..." He took a deep breath. "Gozaburo was whipping Mokuba and he told me to go to my room or he'd kill Mokuba right then and there." Seto was shaking again and Mokuba had hid his face in Seto's chest, crying softly. Seto bit his lip and let go of Noa's hand to hug Mokuba tightly. "Hush..." He mumbled, rocking his brother gently.

The others waited while Seto comforted Mokuba. Mokuba dozed off against Seto chest and Seto sighed. "Gozaburo told Mokuba that he'd kill me if I disobeyed him again. When Gozaburo told me that the next morning, I lost what little hold on my temper I'd had and pushed him out his office window. At the time, his office had been closer to the ground, so it had been a fairly short fall. I've moved my office since then and made the windows shatter-proof, if only to keep that from happening again. It's far too tempting." Seto looked around the room darkly, still rocking Mokuba gently. "There. I told."

Ryou and Yuugi had curled up in their yami's arms, their eyes wide in terror. Malik had a shocked expression on his face. Sekio looked sick. Yami and Bakura looked like they were doing their bests to keep calm looks on their faces. "So," Yuugi finally said, looking at Seto. "since you don't have work tomorrow, do you think you could come to school with Noa?" He asked.

Seto sighed, rubbing his temple darkly. "I don't know..."

"Onegai..." Yuugi gave him a pouting look.

Yami chuckled. "Aibou..."

"Seto, I can stay in the Rod and Malik can let you take the Rod with you. If school gets too much for you, Ryou, Yuugi, or Noa can distract others for you while we switch." Seth suggested. "I think that you going to school is a good idea. You've taken some time off, and I think you should use it to get closer to your friends."

Noa poked him. "What he said."

Seto sighed again. "Okay."

Malik walked over and handed him the Sennen Rod. "I suppose you won't mind if I stay here tonight and go back home tomorrow." He said calmly.

Seto shrugged. "Fine with me." Then he stood carefully. "I'm taking ototo-chan up to his room." Then he left.

"Well?" Yami asked. All eyes turned to Noa and Seth.

Noa nodded. "I think this might have helped, at least some. Let's see how tomorrow goes before we decide anything else, okay?"

The group in the room nodded.

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~~A/N: Short chappie. Whatever. I already have some of the next chappie written in my head, but it doesn't have a title, yet. Give it a little bit!!

Also, I, amazingly, did an attempt at a piccy for this ficcy. (I'm a poet and now know it!! *winks*) It has Seto, Noa, and a kinda ghostly Seth standing in front of the fence in front of the mansion. I think it looks stupid, and it won't be up until at least Mon, so hang in there! When it is up, it'll be up on MM.O, or my site. (http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/kk/index.html) Check it out Mon evening (Feb 10, 2003) or later!! Arigatou!!

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REVIEWS!!!

To Yami no Kaiba(MM.O): I'd tell you to stop taking banners, but I think you're the only one... -_-* Whatever... I think I forgot to tell you about the other bunch I put up later... Don't exactly remember why I didn't tell you... I think you went to bed... *sighes* Yeah...

To sweetdeath(x2)(MM.O): R/B? As in, Ryou/Bakura? *grins* We'll see... And your spelling's fine. I would do worse if I didn't proofread everything ten billion times before posting and reviewing. As for the other title idea, I'll keep it in mind. A little long for my tastes, but it might do it! ^_~ Let me know when you put more up, or I'll just keep an eye on it!!

To BakurasAngel(MM.O): Hey! You're back! Where'd you go? I was starting to think I'd pissed you off or something! *makes a face* Glad you have more chapter ideas!! (Even if you're not! ^_~) And I'm still here if you need me to do the beta thing!!

To Callisto Firestarter(FF.N): Well, jeeze, I dun know... I'll see what I can do!

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DISCLAIMER: Nope. Don't own Yu-Gi-Ou! So sorry... I want me to too...

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Ja!

Katmon =^.^={AKA Okusama KK}

R+R PPLS!!!!!

{P.S. -- Sorry if this wasn't NC-17ish enough for everyone, but I'm upping the rating (on MM.O) any way, mostly because of all the mentions of stuff that happened to him!}